Perfectly Normal Thank You Very Much
by Casscade
Summary: It's twenty one years later and for the sake of his daughter, Dudley is going to have to learn about the Wizarding World after all.
1. The Phone Call

**Chapter One**

Just picking up the phone was one of the hardest parts. He avoided it for months, disregarding the evidence mounting before his eyes in some desperate hope that it would all go away again if he just ignored it for long enough.

When she turned the cat pink, he knew it couldn't wait any longer.

"Hello?"

Harry's voice had deepened into a pleasant baritone in the nineteen or so years since Dudley had heard it last. He swallowed convulsively, his mouth suddenly dry.

"Hello?"

"Hello Harry, it's... well it's me, Dudley."

"Dudley?" Harry sounded surprised.

Apart from one carefully worded Christmas card each year, the two of them had not spoken since they were teenagers. Dudley had had to search high and low for the scrap of old-fashioned parchment with Harry's number scrawled on it. It had appeared a few years back, along with a bunch of strange flowers for his father when he had been in the hospital. Dudley had put them in a vase by Vernon's bedside and lied about whom they were from. Their heavy scent had seemed to let his father sleep without pain, which was more than the endless drugs they pumped into him in those final weeks had done. Dudley had been grateful for that undeserved kindness, but he had never called the number.

"Yeah. Yeah it's me… look Harry I need your help."

There was a pause, Dudley stared unseeing at the wallpaper behind the phone, waiting for the probably well-deserved click of the receiver.

"Of course, what do you need?"

Dudley took a breath.

"It's Daisy… she has… I think she has magic."

There was silence at the end of the phone line, and then he heard his cousin let out an explosive breath.

"Is that all? Merlin Dudders, you had me scared for a minute there."

Dudley felt his temper flair as his months of tormented worrying were summarily dismissed. He struggled for a moment, sharply reminding himself that when it came to magic he didn't exactly have any other contacts.

"Well could you come around and..." He stopped unsure of what exactly he wanted Harry to do, make it all go away preferably.

"Explain things to you?" Harry finished in a kinder tone.

"Yes, and possibly do something about our cat."

"What did she do to the cat?"

"She turned it pink."

"Ahh." Dudley could hear Harry struggling not to laugh and despite himself a smile crept onto his face at the absurdity of saying those words out loud.

"So I should visit fairly soon then?"

"Preferably before my wife gets home with the kids, if you have the time that is, it's probably not the best way to introduce them to wizardry or whatever you call it."

"Right. Well then, first question, do you have a fireplace?"

* * *

Dudley had to grudgingly admit, the years had been kinder to Harry than they had been to him. Though he was still half a foot taller than his cousin, Harry had acquired some lean muscle along the way, and it had aged better than Dudley's softening bulk. His temples had become dusted with silver, and crows feet peeped around a pair of neat black glasses, but other than that he looked largely unchanged by the previous two decades. In fact he looked surprisingly normal in a pair of jeans and a faded sports jumper with 'Holyhead Harpies' written in cracked letters across the back. If you discounted the way he had just casually stepped out of their small gas fire that was.

"Sorry about that," Harry said, grimacing as he stepped forward to shake his hand. "Apparating into a block of flats is loud, and you better be _really_ accurate."

"No that's fine," Dudley said a little weakly. He had forgotten just how _unnatural_ that looked. The cousins stood looking awkwardly at each other for a few moments. "Tea?" He suggested and Harry nodded gratefully and followed him into the kitchen.

Dudley busied himself with the kettle to avoid looking at his cousin whilst Harry sat uncomfortably at his kitchen table. Dudley kept his back to him as he struggled to come up with something to say. The violent dislike of his childhood had long ago faded into a kind of grudging shame that he avoided thinking about if he could. He knew intellectually that his younger self had been spoilt beyond reason and deliberately encouraged in his petty cruelty. Yet guilt over his contribution to his cousin's already miserable childhood would still sometimes visit him in the quiet of the night. Now he was here, and Dudley was going to have to beg favours off of someone who probably did not have a single fond memory of him or his family. He felt a sort of ugly resentment growing at the whole situation and stamped down on it firmly. He was not his parents, he _would_ deal with this situation rationally.

Millie picked that moment to make her entrance. She really was florescent, Dudley observed as she leapt gracefully onto the kitchen table. A sort of marker-pen pink that couldn't possibly be mistaken for paint or dye. Even her irises were pink. Harry laughed and held up a hand for her to sniff as Dudley brought the tea over.

"She really is pink isn't she? And your wife didn't see her?" He asked as Millie inspected his hand regally.

"Luckily my wife took the kids to her mothers this morning," Dudley said, grateful for the opening. "If she or the boys had seen her, believe me I would have heard about it."

"And how are you sure it was Daisy?"

Dudley looked at him, then looked pointedly at his daughter's bright pink cat. Harry laughed.

"Point taken."

"How old is Daisy now?"

"Nine and a half."

"Really? She's manifesting early, you've got about a year and a half till her letter comes then. She should be in the same year as my youngest, Lily."

Dudley said nothing, but Harry must have seen something in his face.

"It really is a wonderful place Dudley," he said gently as Dudley stared down into his tea.

"Didn't seem like such a wonderful place for you," he said into his cup. "Especially those final years."

Harry's eyes flickered for a moment.

"I was a… special case. Most people don't go through school with a terrorist and his followers out for their blood, it tends to make things…. exiting. Most students have a fairly uneventful time there."

"And the war?"

"Long over" Harry sighed, running his hands through his hair. "Though not without great cost. The Wizarding World is a lot different than in was twenty years ago Dudders, she would be safe at Hogwarts.

"And whats-his-name?"

Harry let out a low chuckle, Dudley didn't get the joke.

"Long dead. Most of his followers are dead too, the ones who aren't are either in prison or gone to ground so hard even the worms can't find them. Every few years I get the pleasure of digging one up and dragging them out into the light."

Harrys' eyes had gone dark. Dudley felt a chill, for a moment he saw the teenager who had come back that place each year angrier and more scared. He shuddered and wondered for the hundredth time that day whether this was the right thing to do. Then Harry blinked it away again and shot him a quick apologetic smile.

"What colour was your cat before?" He said.

"Uh, black, with blue eyes."

Dudley watched in fascination as Harry laid a figure on Millie's little pink nose. Like ink dripped into a pool of water, darkness spread across her fur, restoring her to approximately her original colour. He whispered something under his breath and her eyes glowed for a second, then settled back to their normal blue. She gave him an offended look, and stalked off to clean her more usually coloured fur. Dudley let out a breath he hadn't even known he'd been holding.

"That maybe the first nice piece of magic I've ever seen," he commented lightly.

Harry looked at him sharply, then his eyes grew thoughtful. "You know thinking back you might be right, it's a wonder you didn't try hide Daisy away like your parents did me."

Dudley felt a twang of conscience at that. He shrugged, "I thought about it believe me, but it didn't seem to work on you." He hesitated a moment, "Besides it's been happening more frequently these last few months. I think she's starting to figure it out, I'm not sure Millie was entirely an accident."

"It's impressive if she has. Most wizarding kids don't manage to do that kind of magic deliberately, and they have at least some idea what they are doing. None of mine did."

"Impressive or not I'm not going to be able to hide it from my family much longer, especially if she's doing it on purpose," Dudley said heavily. "Frankly I'd rather stay as far away from your world as I possibly can but she's forcing my hand here."

Harry nodded. "That's fair I suppose. So how do you want to break it to them?"

* * *

If Daisy was disappointed at her normal coloured cat when she got home, then she hid it well. She did complain though about giving up her next weekend to spend it at 'dad's weird cousin's place' in the countryside where they probably wouldn't even have wifi. Her brothers backed her vigorously but they got nowhere.

Dudley knew he had a week to sit down with his wife and clue her in on the whole situation; and he knew that he _really_ shouldn't have waited until twenty minutes before they had to go before bringing it up. They were in their bedroom, failing to pack lightly when he finally bit the bullet.

"Ah Darling?"

"Mmm?" She replied digging through her wardrobe. "How rural is this place love? Like 'charmingly picturesque' or 'wellingtons are compulsory?"

"I don't know, I've never been- look I need to talk to you about something."

"Should I bring wellies for everybody?"

" _Amanda."_

"Sorry, sorry," she said emerging from the wardrobe, "You needed to talk to me about something?"

"Yeah, um, well…" He trailed off. The words 'Harry is a wizard' and 'magic is real' and 'Daisy needs to go to witching school' floated in the front of his mind, mocking him with their absurdity as they had been all week. He had played out the conversation with himself a dozen different ways and he still hadn't come up with a way not to sound either certifiable or the latest initiate into a cult. His lovely logical wife was not going to believe a word he said unless the evidence was in front of her eyes, and probably not even then. If he started trying to explain it now he'd never get her up to Harry's house. He refocused on her puzzled face.

"Maybe it's better if Harry explains" he said, chickening out once again. "I don't think I could do a good job of it to be honest."

"Hah! I knew we weren't just going for a visit. I barely knew you had a cousin before this week." She said struggling to zip the case closed. "Your mother goes all tight lipped when he's mentioned, I figured he didn't turn out too well."

"Not in her eyes anyway, my parents raised him, but we were never close," Dudley said uncomfortably. "Truth be told I was a massive asshole to him throughout our childhood, and my parents weren't much better. It's a wonder he's willing to help me out at all."

"Help with what? You really are being very cryptic about the whole thing love. I'm happy to help you reconnect with your family but that's obviously not why we are going up there."

"You're just going to have to trust me on this darling," Dudley said. "You're not going to believe me on this without some fairly substantial evidence, so let me take you to where there is some."

"You are beginning to make me cross Dud," she said peevishly as she tugged the zip. She looked kind of adorable when she did that, like a barbie having a bad day. Though it was probably not the best time to mention that to her. He crossed over the room and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"I know." He said dropping a kiss onto her shoulder. "I'm sorry, for all of this, thank you for going along with it."


	2. Harry's House

**Chapter Two**

* * *

The journey up to Surrey was uneventful. Harry had given him the postcode of a nearby pub, and a scrawled set of directions from there. They wound their way up the increasingly narrow country roads until suddenly, they came across a shallow little valley encircled by woodland.

Amanda gasped and Dudley couldn't blame her. A bubbling stream ran the length of the valley floor. Nestled beside it was an ancient looking cruck framed house. It rambled around a roughly square courtyard strewn with the parts of a mostly dismantled motorbike. Mismatched windows peered out under golden thatch and a deck, shaded beneath an enormous willow tree, extended out into the stream, two small boats bobbing gently at the end if it. The wild looking garden was not fenced but faded gently into the surrounding valley, where various crumbling outbuildings stood amongst tall meadow-grass.

It appeared to have been built at random over several centuries. It was crooked and charming and the absolute polar opposite of Privet Drive, Dudley thought wryly, his mother would have hated it.

"My" Amanda murmured as their car made its way down towards the valley floor. "I think I'd live in the back of beyond for a house like that too. What does Harry do? This place is miles from anywhere."

"I don't actually know." Dudley said truthfully as they passed three hoops stuck on long poles at either end of a scrubby field. The kid's eyes were glued to the windows now. It was a lovely sunny day and everything from the shady woods to the little boats promised the kind of adventure you didn't get many of in the middle of London.

"Something to do with law enforcement I think." He cast his mind back to Christmas cards past. "His wife…. Ginny, was some kind of athlete for a while I think, and he's got three kids, two boys and a girl about the same age as ours. They go to boarding school in… in Scotland most of the time."

"She must have been good, that's a nice house for a coppers family."

"His parents left him some money I think," Dudley said absently. "It paid for his schooling and suchlike." And had driven his parents mad he recalled, they'd never been able to get their hands on a penny of it.

They reached a pair of old ironwork gates that stood unaccompanied by a wall. They swung open as their car reached them. Dudley noticed that the stone pillars were heavily etched with strange runes that seemed to glow for a moment as they passed between them. He swallowed convulsively and fought down the urge to turn this car around, rush home and buy his family a one way ticket to somewhere far away from this dangerous and unnatural world.

He thought back to just yesterday. His little girls face. Her look of wonder as her toys revolved like planets around her bedroom. Her look of fear as he pushed opened the door a second after they dropped to the ground and her look of relief when he had said nothing. No, he could not take this away from her, not until he knew what he was taking. He gripped the steering wheel and drove on.

* * *

Harry was waiting for them as their car pulled up in the cobbled courtyard. Next to him was a cute looking redhead that had to be Ginny. She looked sort of familiar, she had a nice button nose and was wearing an old jumper, walking boots and a guarded smile. Apparently not everyone was as willing to forgive and forget as Harry was. Arranged in front of them were three wild looking kids. The boys had inherited their father's dark hair and lean frame, although only the middle boy had his green eyes. The little girl had the same red hair and dark eyes as her mother. It looked like some effort had been made to smarten them up, that effort had failed. The girl was wearing a dress that had probably been nice this morning and had a kind of holly leaf crown weaved through her hair. The boys were no better, their shirts looked like they'd recently lost a fight with a badger.

Harry was looking at him with the same queasy smile that was fixed on his own face.

"Dudley, Amanda." He said stepping forward to shake their hands. "Welcome, these are my kids James, Al and Lily and my wife Ginny, did you have a nice trip?"

The kids evaluated each other stoically as the parents made awkward small talk above their heads.

"Why have you got leaves in your hair?" Daisy asked Harry's daughter.

"My godmother Luna says it will attract Nargals, I want to see one," said Lily in an airy tone. She looked almost fey with her little bare feet and strange crown, a complete contraposition to Daisy's neatly brushed blond hair and smart dress.

"Really?" his daughter said looking intensely curious.

"What happened to your shirts?" Brandon asked at the same time, Harry's boys looked at each other. Seeing his boys and Harry's together was almost like seeing a double negative of their childhood. Harrry was looking at the four of them as well, a funny expression of his face, he caught his cousin's eye in a moment of unmagical telepathy. His boys were fit rather than fat and Harry's were lean rather than half starved, both resembled their fathers so much that it was a little unsettling.

"Lily's…. pet Fred didn't want to go back in his cage," said Al, his shirt sleeve was almost entirely burnt away. "He's not used to it, he got a bit agitated."

"What sort of pet-" Theo began.

"What's a Nar-"

"We should probably move right along," Harry said quickly. "Kids go get changed and entertain yourselves for a while. Come right this way."

Harry and Ginny led them into a low beamed kitchen that, Dudley noted, had had every one of its photographs taken off the walls. It was also completely devoid of modern conveniences like a dishwasher, toaster or even a fridge, though they seemed to have an overabundance of old fashioned besom brooms and a honest-to-god cauldron sitting in a fireplace made of massive pitted stone.

They all sat at the large kitchen table, Harry and Ginny one side, Dudley and his family on the other. Daisy and the boys squirmed in their seats, peering up at the drying herbs dangling in bunches from the ceiling and the strange glass jars of unidentifiable ingredients lining the shelves. Harry sat under the collective gaze of the new Dursleys as Ginny bustled around, serving tea and drinks in an eclectic range of mugs. They had only just settled back into awkward silence when Amanda's good manners finally broke.

"So what is this about?" She said, looking from one set of uneasy adults to another, "Because this is definitely about something and I think I've been patient enough about it." Harry blinked and looked at Dudley, he raised an enquiring eyebrow. Dudley went red.

"So you didn't tell her? Really?"

"I tried!" protested Dudley "But she wouldn't have…I didn't know how to…. well, it's better if it comes from you, " he finished at a mutter, avoiding his wife's' hard gaze.

"So we are doing everyone at once then, right excellent," said Harry throwing his arms up in the air. There was a thump and Dudley saw him wince as his wife smiled serenely at them. The kids were suddenly all ears, their faces alight with curiosity as they looked back and forth between the two sets of tense adults.

"Tell me what." Amanda said, a hint of hardness in her voice, Dudley shot a look at his daughter, but she looked as unsuspecting as the rest of his family. He braced for whatever would happen once Harry blew up their entire worldview. He realized he was shaking with nerves, the only reaction he had ever seen to wizardry had been his own parents fear and rejection. But they couldn't could they? Not to their own sister... _not to their own nephew_. Dudley held his breath and preyed Harry would handle this delicately.

Harry looked a little hopelessly at the lot of them. Then he sighed and leaned back on his chair.

"Right, well I'm sorry, ultimately there's no real way to ease you into this. I'll keep it short so we can get past the protests and into the real explanations." He spread his hands and looked at Dudley's assembled brood. "Magic is real. The magical world and assorted magical creatures have lived secretly alongside the mundane one for over five centuries, hidden out of your sight. My side of the family entirely made up of witches and wizards, we get sent to a magic school called Hogwarts, where we learn to use magic. Any questions?"

There was silence, Dudley gaped at him, his mouth moving but no sound coming out. Brandon sniggered and when no one chastised him fell about laughing with his older brother. Ginny put her head in her hands.

"Really Harry?"

"Your cousin's mental dad," Theo said above Brandon's howls of laughter.

"I think I agree," his wife said icily, she stood. "This is what you dragged us all out here for? Why you've been acting so weird these last few weeks? I swear this stupid joke is really-"

She stopped. They all stopped, staring at the centre of the table where the tea set had just been. A herd of tiny ponies stood less than a hand high on the tabletop, their coats patterned like the mugs they had been less than a second ago. Harry lowered his wand and smiled winningly at the speechless family.

"Magic."

"That… is so wicked," breathed Theo as the little creatures trotted fearlessly up to the stunned family.

"That's a neat trick but you're not going to-" she broke off as a little paisley patterned pony nuzzled at her fingers.

"If you have another explanation then I'd love to hear it," said Harry pleasantly. He grimaced as his wife once again kicked him in the ankle.

"What my husband is ineptly trying to demonstrate is yes magic is real," Ginny said. She drew her wand and waved it, the tiny horses' unfurled miniature wings and took flight, circling around their heads.

"It's not a trick, it's not a fairytale, it's a whole secret world which you are now being invited to know about."

To her credit Amanda just swallowed heavily and sat slowly back down.

"Ok, perhaps I do have some questions."

And it all might have been fine if Daisy had not chosen that moment to speak.

"You mean it's not just me?" She said wonderingly, looking up at the china pegasi flying above.

Harry winced.

"Ahh yes that was the other thing we needed to talk to you about."

* * *

"You could have broken it to them a little more gently," said Dudley as they sat out on the deck several lengthy explanations later. Their wives sat on the edge of the shady pier a few meters away, sharing a bottle of wine. Their heads were bent in conversation and their toes dipping into the cool stream. Amanda, Dudley noticed, was drinking rather heavily. The kids had run off somewhere, all talking a mile a minute, both sets seemed equally curious about their separate worlds.

"There's no real way to break it gently," said Harry taking a sip of his beer. "I asked my old teacher, McGonagall for on advice on how to do it. She said there's not much point in trying to explain first, you won't be believed until you demonstrate it, and that's a shock whatever you do."

Dudley nodded and took a drink.

"Anyway was better than the way we were introduced to it," snorted Harry. "Don't you remember, Bang! Yer a wizard Harry…. Oink."

"Yes I do recall," said Dudley dryly, "growing a pigs tail does tend to stick in the mind."

"That was one of the best days of my life," recalled Harry fondly.

Dudley gave him a look and Harry grinned unrepentantly at him. Just then the four boys ran up to their fathers. Brandon and Theo's pressed shirts looking significantly scruffier than they had just a little while ago.

"Dad, dad," James said, a broom in each hand. "Can we take the boys flying dad. We'll only do it over the quidditch field, they still work for muggles don't they?"

Harry looked at Dudley.

"The quidditch pitch is covered in cushioning spells, even if they fall off, they'll come to no harm," he said.

"Wait, fly with what?" Dudley said, his voice making Amanda look around.

"Broomsticks, we fly on broomsticks. For real," he added catching the look on Dudleys face. "Don't you remember? I brought one home every summer."

"Oh this I've got to see," said Amanda coming up beside them, wine bottle firmly in hand.

They all trooped down to the scrubby field they had passed that morning. Lily and Daisy wandered over from a nearby field trailing what looked like a twenty foot daisy chain between them. Daisy now also supporting a crown of holly leaves, and was sans shoes. Dudley sighed, it was probably inevitable. A floating ball of turquoise fluff with a little monkey face floated along behind them making high pitched chirping noises.

"That's Lily's pygmy puff, Fred," said Harry. "They are bred by her uncle, she's probably going to have to leave him here when she goes to Hogwarts through. He was a bit of an experiment, and I don't think McGonagall will allow a familiar that breaths fire."

Dudley decided to just not ask.

Harry's boys demonstrated the safety charms by rather dramatically flinging themselves off of their brooms and bouncing gently to the ground, and Amanda and Dudley were persuaded to allow the boys to have some low safe rides around the field.

It truly was surreal, to see them so effortlessly born aloft, faces glowing, by small lengths of wood. To their credit Harry's boys were slow patient teachers, and almost entirely resisted showing off as they took them through the basics. Soon they were racing up and down the pitch chucking a ball between them.

"Oi! C'mon old man," James is voice drifted over to them from the other end of the field. Harry grinned and picked up a long sleek looking broom.

"I'll just be a minute." He placed a foot onto the bristles and shot vertically into the sky. Dudley took a few steps back as he corkscrewed high above their heads and began to fall at a stomach wrenching speed towards the boys. James had barely time to gape as he snatched the heavy red ball neatly out of his hands, his toes brushed the long grass as he pulled up to loop over their heads. His sons laughed and shot after him. For the first time Dudley really did feel the hard tug of jealousy for Harry and his world as they danced like swallows in the afternoon light. His boys hovered to one side gaping up as the three of them looped and dived and darted after each other at breakneck speeds. Ginny snorted.

"Show-offs," she said fondly as their laughter echoed across the fields. "Would you like to come back inside? They'll probably be up there for a while." High above, the five of them were absorbed in their game. With one last look they turned back to the house. Quietly Daisy came up behind him and took his hand.

"Thank you for bringing me here dad." She said as they walked back. "I was so confused, thank you for bringing me to people like me."

Dudley felt the cold meaning of those words slide down his spine, even as he smiled down at his daughter. _People like me._ He stared at the top her little blond head, already imagining her slipping through his fingers, into that strange world where he could never truly follow. It looked all so innocent and wonderful and magical in the sunlight of Harry's home; but he remembered the fear and the cold and the horror of creatures he couldn't even see let alone protect his little girl from and he wondered if he had not made a terrible mistake.


	3. Only Muggles

**Chapter Three**

"I don't know what to do about it," said Dudley. "I've tried talking to them about it but they just clam up on me, it's really upsetting Daisy."

Harry's voice came through the receiver. "Do you want me to come and talk to them?"

"Could you?"

"I can come on the weekend if you like," said Harry. "You're right it should be nipped in the bud if at all possible," there was a hesitation on the end of the line. "I have an idea on how to do it, but it involves speaking a bit more about the about the Wizarding War."

At first visits to Harry's house had been greeted with excitement. A permanent weekend 'Potkey' now sat on their mantelpiece and the boys had sodded off to his cousins place so often he barely saw them. Dudley had tried it once, and the sensation of getting turned inside out had convinced him to stick to the car. Which they did for the occasional odd but enjoyable weekend.

But the boys had become more and more withdrawn as the year had worn on. When Daisy's letter had come, they stopped wanting to go to their cousins and they stopped talking to their sister. Anything they did say to her had a cutting edge that was never there before. Daisy, upset and confused by this sudden hostility had retreated further into Harry's world. She spent long weekends off with Lily, romping through the woods in search of strange creatures found in her godmothers books. She lived for those weekends, but Dudley could hardly bare to let her go. It seemed like there was so little time left before he lost her to that strange place...

He didn't know what to do. He thought he understood a little better now, about how his mother could keep such a resentment of all things magical burning for so long as he watched magic and that school pull a third generation of his family apart. He so desperately wanted to treasure these last few months with his daughter, and instead….

* * *

"It's like history is repeating itself" He said after Harry had stepped out of his fireplace. He tried to keep the accusation out of his voice as he said it. "They're jealous, and the closer it gets to when she gets to leave for Hogwarts the more real it gets. They don't want to be… muggles, they want magic. It's just like our mothers all over again. I can't let magic do this to our family Harry… not again."

Harry sat watching him as he paced agitatedly around the kitchen, waving his arms in the air.

"What does Amanda think?" He asked.

"She thinks they'll get over it, or they'll miss her when she's gone and say sorry. She doesn't realise we could lose her to that place completely-"

"Dudley," Harry interrupted gently. "Daisy comes from a loving family. "As much as magic may excite and fascinate her over the next few years she's always going to want to come home to you guys.""

Not if the boys keep making her feel like a freak about it." Dudley said sinking into a chair. "I've tried to talk to them about it, I have, but they won't listen."

Harry was frowning. "Speaking of mothers," he said, "have you told Petunia about this yet?"

Dudley shoulders slumped. "No," he said miserably. "I know I need to, there's no way she won't work it out when Daisy goes away, but the last thing I need is mother rejecting her for it on top of everything else."

"Do you really think she would?" Harry asked, Dudley gave him a look.

"She raised you from a baby and she never let herself love you that whole time because she knew you would be taken from her just like her sister." He said bluntly. "She loves Daisy dearly, but I don't know it will be enough to make her come around to the idea that magic is anything less than a curse on this family."

"That's… a charitable interpretation of her behaviour," said Harry blinking.

"Oh it doesn't excuse her and dad treating you like shit, or almost ruining my chances of becoming a decent human being for that matter," Dudley interrupted him. "Believe me, I know their parenting skills left a lot to be desired. But over the years I've come to think that was why she never relented, or maybe I just hope it was that, she is my mother after all." He looked down at his hands for a moment. "Anyway, point is she can hold a grudge."

"You're right, let's get the boys sorted first, then we can deal with your mother," said Harry. "When do they get home?"

"Half an hour or so, they're off at football practice."

"Right." He hesitated, looking at Dudley. "I've been trying to avoid the same situation as you have been. Trying to make sure your family sees the fantastic, wondrous side of magic these last few months. So that they would feel welcome, and not be afraid of what the sister is." He clasped his hands around his teacup. "I think maybe it's time to talk to them about the darker side of the wizarding world. You and Daisy need to know some of my history anyway, she's related to me and it won't be fair to send her there with no warning of what that means."

"Won't that just scare them?" said Dudley, he was staring at Harry's hand, and the faint inscription that could still be seen, _I must not tell lies._ "And Amanda, and me for that matter, I can hardly bare to let her go as it is, do you really want to be telling war stories?"

Harry shrugged, "My wife has... had six older brothers, and I've found whatever else they are they are they are damn protective. As for the rest of it, you and Amanda at least deserve to know, I've worked hard to show you the good side of magic, but this is part of it too, I can't hide it from you while asking you to trust us with your daughter."

"And if I decided that I don't want to let her go?" he asked. "Could you make it… go away? Make them forget it ever existed?"

"She can't go to Hogwarts without your permission," Harry said gravely. "There are spells to make people forget. Officially it would not be hard to get permission to make your family forget about magic, they are muggles and a potential security risk. But she is a full magical citizen in our eyes, you can deny her a magical education, but you can't deny her knowledge of the magical world." He hesitated, "I don't think she would ever forgive you if you did Dudley."

"No," Dudley said quietly, not looking up. "I think you're right."

"I'd like to bring my friend Hermione in on this," said Harry. "She's a muggleborn, she had more... well a slightly more usual experience than I did, she might be able to help explain things."

"Right, sure," Dudley said, he had a vague recollection of a mousy haired girl with big teeth. "If you think it will help." He looked in surprise as Harry pulled out an old fashioned mobile and started to text.

"Magic's not always the best way of doing things," said Harry catching his expression. "You can't get stuff like this to work around places permeated with magic without special adjustments being made, but here?" He shrugged, "Far more convenient than most magical methods."

Only a few minutes later an attractive middle-aged woman stepped out of the fireplace. She wore a tailored set of deep green robes and carried a small briefcase. She nodded formally at Dudley before turning to Harry.

"You're lucky I was coming out of work Harry or else I wouldn't have got that message for hours," she said setting the bag down.

"You shouldn't be working Hermione, it's a Saturday," he said mildly pouring her a cup of tea.

"Tell that to the International Seers Council. They want the centaur's premonitions to be classified as officially inferior to human visions. It's causing a massive stink," she said in a tired voice, clasping the mug gratefully. "It could undo all the progress we've made with the centaur communities over the last two decades, they are very proud of their ability to divine the future."

"As they should be," said Harry. "They tend to be far more reliable than any human seers I've met, at least when you can persuade them a bit of specificity won't kill them. Hermione, Dudley, Dudley this is Hermione, the friend I was telling you about."

"We've met before." Hermione said. "A long time ago. From what Harry says you have been handling the news of your daughter… better than could have be expected really, considering..."

"I used to be a such shit?" Dudley finished for her, she had the grace to blush a bit.

* * *

Just then they heard the front door go, Theo and Brandon tumbled in, followed by a despondent Daisy and their mother. Daisy spotted them first and her face lit up.

"Harry, Hermione!" She said running over. The boys looked up, and Dudley saw their faces pass through joy to resentment as Harry and Hermione greeted Daisy like… well like one of their own.

"Hello boys, I haven't seen you around for a while," Harry said pleasantly as they came into the kitchen. "James and Al have been missing you."

Amanda came to sit down, curiously eyeing Hermione.

"So what is this about?" she asked her husband as he handed her a drink.

"I asked Harry to come and talk to the boys about how they've been treating their sister." Dudley said. The room went quiet, Theo and Brandon looked quickly at him and then down at their muddy football boots.

"Ah," said Amanda putting down her handbag. "Well boys you better take a seat, Daisy you too."

The boys sat down reluctantly and stared fixedly at the tabletop. Daisy looked ready to die from embarrassment as Harry let the silence settle for a moment.

"Well?" He said presently. "What do you have to say for yourselves?"

Theo and Brandon looked at each other and then at the row of assembled adults.

"We haven't-" Brandon began. Harry held up a finger and he stopped.

"Haven't you?" Harry asked, his voice soft but his green eyes unrelenting. Despite himself Dudley felt a twang of resentment at how easily Harry held their attention. "That's not what I or your parents have seen. Why are you making your sister unhappy?" Daisy sat shooting quick mortified glances at her brothers who both avoided her eyes.

"Why should she care, she gets to go to magic school in a few months." Theo finally muttered as the silence stretched out. "We'll go back to ordinary school in the normal world and she'll be off learning _magic_."

Daisy opened her mouth angrily, tears in her eyes but Dudley shook his head and she closed it again.

"So you think being a muggle makes you less special? Do you think it bars you from the wizarding world?" Harry asked them.

"Doesn't it?" said Brandon sullenly.

"Well you wouldn't be the first to think it," said Hermione quietly. "That muggles and the children of muggles were somehow lesser than 'fullblooded' wizards. That people like us should not be allowed access to the wizarding world," she nodded at Daisy. "The fact is that there are people who still think that in our community. Not many, not anymore, but some. Your sister is the niece of sorts of Harry Potter, his muggleborn niece no less. She will probably have to deal with some of this kind of…prejudice as she goes through school."

"Al said you defeated Lord...er the dark wizard leader, twice." Said Theo, curious despite himself. "When he attacked your family as a baby you banished him, and then again when you were seventeen. There was a prophesy...only you could kill him for good and end the war, and you did and you saved everyone." He paused for a moment, oblivious to the tight look that ran across both Harry and Hermione's face. "How can a baby defeat a dark wizard?"

Harry's expression flickered, then he brought it under control, his friend put her hand on his arm. Dudley looked at his cousin. He had known that there had been a war on, and secret revolutionary group that Harry had played a key part in, his family had hid out most of the year he had turned seventeen. They had been comfortably provided for and heavily guarded by two 'weirdos' as his father had called them. Then one day they packed up, said the war was over and let them go back to their lives.

His parents had added the whole episode to the list of reasons to despise Harry and his kind, and Dudley never heard much more about it. He had tried to explain it to Amanda but he suspected he had done it poorly. She listened with interest now, her arms wrapped protectively around her daughter's shoulders.

Was that really what Harry had been? A child soldier? He remembered the summers that Harry had spent screaming himself awake. He remembered how he had taunted him about those unending nightmares. Brandon was leaning forward now, still in his muddy football kit with scuffed knees and wind tousled hair. Harry had probably been no older when he had first heard him through the wall... _Not Cedric, please please don't kill Cedric please._ He stared, unseeing at his boys... _Who's Cedric your boyfriend?_ Had it already started by then? When they were that young? While he was cruising around his suburban neighborhood with his mates, dealing out petty cruelty and thinking himself so hard. Had it already begun? Had Harry already watched people die, fought for his life, killed? _They're going to kill me mum._ He turned his face away, suddenly feeling sick at the memory and the sight of his little boys sunlit hair. _Awww, where's your mum Potter? Is she dead? Are they all dead?_

"It's complicated, and that's not all that accurate," Harry said finally, breaking Dudley away from his brooding. "I was one small part of something far larger. Many good people died to win that war. But that is a popular misconception among the wizarding world, and for it I am… quite well known."

"Twenty years ago we fought a war against people who would have decreed you and your parents as inferior humans fit only to be ruled over, and your sister as having dirty blood and stolen magic," said Hermione. "We won, barely, and our world and yours did not end up like that. But I still shudder to think of what the world would have looked like had we lost." She hesitated and looked at Harry, he nodded, and she drew up her sleeve. "Perhaps it would have looked something like this."

Amanda let out a gasp, and Dudley stared. Carved into her arm in deep ugly scars was a word, _Mudblood._ There was silence, Daisy reached out a curious hand and Hermione let her run her fingers over the raised red letters.

Dudley found his voice. "Those, those don't look twenty years old." He struggled to keep it even as he stared at the mutilated arm. She shifted and the silvery outlines of more faded cuts and bite-marks caught the light.

"An enchanted dagger was used, they will never fully heal, or fade," said Hermione drawing her sleeve back down her arm, the boys were looking at her in shock.

"Does it still hurt?" Daisy asked softly, still looking at her covered arm.

"Sometimes," Hermione said, "But it was a far smaller price than many paid for the world we have now."

"They did that at that school? Dad you can't send Daisy there!" Theo cried leaping to his feet. Brandon wrapped his arms around his little sister, she looked up at them with a mixture of joy and chagrin written across her face. Dudley looked at his wife, feeling much the same way.

"It didn't happen at Hogwarts, it happened while we were held prisoner during the war," corrected Hermione, "we were on the front lines so to speak."

"That doesn't happen anymore?" Amanda asked, her voice shaky.

"Not in twenty years," said Hermione firmly. "The Death Eaters were essentially terrorists, they are all dead, or in jail, or still running. Blood prejudice is like racism or homophobia, still around, but thought of as backward bigotry by almost everyone. Before and after the war the worst I got was the occasional name calling."

"Remember when you broke Malfoy's nose for calling you a Mudblood." Harry recalled fondly "That was beautiful."

"That memory fueled my patronus for years," Hermione said smiling. She looked at Daisy. "Still want to go?"

"Yes" said Daisy, hardly hesitating.

"What your sister needs from you is protection and support, not jealousy. She is going to a wonderful but strange place, with new rules and customs and prejudices. It's a hard adjustment believe me, she will need you."

The boys no longer looked sullen, they hovered protectively behind their sister, looking ready to fight the whole world for her if need be. Dudley struggled with himself, forcing himself to stay seated and quiet.

"We may have won," said Harry leaning forward, his eyes steady and serious. "But magic is still easily abused, especially against those that don't know it exists. Our communities are pretty insular, wizards, even muggleborn ones, rarely operate in the muggle world after Hogwarts. Even Hermione barely knows how to use the internet and both her parents are dentists. There is a whole community of Muggles with one foot in the magical world, usually through some muggleborn relation or magical family branch. Private investigators who specialise in the magical abuse of muggles by unscrupulous wizards. Net contractors who keep our presence off the web. Traders and guides and secret keepers. They tend to be highly resourceful and they move through both worlds, keeping both muggles and wizards safe."

"You may not be able to cast magic boys, but that's not to say you can't make use of it under certain conditions," said Hermione. "The problem with having magic is it can make wizards... unresourceful in certain areas. Our Muggle investigators mix skills and knowledge from both worlds, and they tend to be very effective. Harry is head of the Aurors, sort of like the wizard police, he employs a whole bunch of them to help find and investigate magical crimes based in the muggle world. They often keep offices in the muggle world as well, as Private Investigators with a reputation for taking on strange cases." She paused and added slyly, "You two could go into business together"

Despite himself, Dudley was impressed by how well Harry and Hermione had played them. The boys' eyes shone with possibilities. They each had a hand on their sister's shoulders, animosity forgotten. Harry had painted them an exciting picture. They weren't ordinary, they were the vanguards of an exciting secret, guardians of their sisters' hidden world. There would be bad guys to fight and people to save. It wasn't just Daisy, Harry was going to pull all his children into his world.

"Now Daisy and your cousins are going to need to get her school supplies, we were planning on going to Diagon Alley next month. Would you like to come?"

If the boys had nodded any harder, their heads would have fallen off. His troubled eyes met Amanda's over their children's heads, and he couldn't keep his mind off of Hermione's scarred arm and Harry's scarred eyes.


	4. Fear

"How can we let her go?"

Dudley rolled over with a stifled sigh. His alarm was set for seven the next morning, but sleep would have to wait. His wife was staring unseeing up at the ceiling fan, her face creased with worry.

"Amanda…"

"Can we even stop her going?" She turned her eyes towards him and Dudley saw fear. "What are our rights here? What laws do they follow? Because I doubt it is the British penal system. If we tried to stop her would they take her away from us…. Were only mu-muggles after all."

Dudley pulled his shaking wife towards him, she curled up against his chest, fingers clutching his sleepshirt.

"They won't do that." He murmured into her hair, he hesitated for a moment, but she had the right to know. "I asked Harry, we can stop her going, if we want, we can even be made to forget, though Daisy can't, we can forget they were ever there."

"Or they could take her and make us forget she ever existed." His wife said into his chest. Dudley's stomach clenched.

"Harry wouldn't let them do that, they have laws."

"You said your parents didn't approve of Harry going, but they came and took him anyway."

Dudley's mind flashed back to the small stinking shack on the edge of England. His parents terrified anger, the giant figure silhouetted by lightning. They had run and run and it had not been enough.

"Harry was… special to the Wizarding World, even then, and my parents were not his parents."

"But they were his guardian's right? Legally? They had parental rights, at least in our world, but it wasn't enough."

"Amanda my parents…"

Amanda sat up, duvet pooling around her waist, Dudley lent against the headboard.

"Were abusive, yeah I get that, more than ever, but what if they weren't? I've been listening to the boys stories Dudley. Harry got attacked every year from the age of eleven, I think he might have even had to kill someone at that age. At eleven Dudley! What if they had wanted to keep him away for perfectly valid reasons and they came _and took him anyway?"_

"Daisy isn't Harry."

"But she is related to him Dudley, she is his cousin, or niece or whatever. That's what they were saying when you get right down to it, being related to Harry makes her a target. They didn't ask us if we wanted to send her after hearing all that, did you notice that? They only asked her, a ten year old, if she wanted to go, we were not considered or consulted."

Amanda's voice was rising, and Dudley glanced towards the thin walls. Amanda caught his look and deflated, her voice dropping to a whisper.

"God. God I've been so stupid. I was so excited at first you know, after getting over the shock of it. Getting to be part of this enormous secret, Harry's house was like this wonderful holiday from reality. I started noticing things, things you just dismiss as an adult, strangely dressed people, things out of place, alleys that pushed you away."

Dudley gathered her into his arms again and let her talk it out. He was an inconsiderate ass he realised, he had been so focused on Daisy and the boy's integration that he had taken his wife's adaption and silent support of their new reality for granted. She sniffed a little and continued.

"I went down one you know, pushed passed whatever was dissuading me from going down there and found a little magical neighbourhood, kids on brooms, cauldrons you know? And this woman came out of one of the houses and asked me what I needed, she was friendly but I could see her wand in her hand. The minute I mentioned I had a child going to Hogwarts she relaxed, like it was a passcode. Dudley I've walked passed that alley for seven years and if I had gone down there before last summer I wouldn't have gotten a friendly chat, I would have been kidnapped and had part of my memory stolen. Because Harry and Hermione may talk pretty Dudley, but we don't get the same rights, muggles don't get the right to know, or even the right to our knowledge if they decide they don't want us too."

"Amanda."

"And you know what I really don't get?" She said pushing away from him, "is why you are so OK with all of this. This is our daughter, our little girl."

Dudley sighed, and ran his fingers through his thinning blond hair. He turned his eyes on her and tried to explain something he hadn't even worked through himself.

"If you had walked into our house growing up you would have had no idea another boy was living there, no pictures of Harry on the walls, no bedroom even, no mention outside the house if it could possibly be avoided. Always afraid of what the neighbours might say. I didn't realise it at the time, I thought they just hated him and I am sure he did too, but they were hiding him. They lived in fear, fear the next strangely dressed man to come and shake his hand would blow their heads off. Fear that he would do something strange and draw the attention of 'those people."

Amanda was silent, Dudley knew that he had avoided speaking of his childhood in the past, half out of shame, half out of an inability to explain Harry to her before Daisy, even now he couldn't look at her eyes, staring straight ahead at the opposing wall.

"Don't get me wrong they weren't nice, fear breeds resentment, and they took it out on him for as long as I remember. They tried to beat the magic out of him, or at least encouraged me to give it a go. They wanted to push that part of him down into the deepest part of himself. I wish this had never happened to our daughter because you're right, about all of it. Daisy is the only true citizen of that world, we don't count in their eyes, not really and we can't protect her there. But I can't raise Daisy like that."

"That's not fair, you know it wouldn't be-"

"It would be. Out of fear we would take her education from her, fear would poison our family as it did mine and when she is old enough she would run straight back there anyway. You know she would. Unless you plan to use magic to steal our children's memories from their heads."

Dudley could feel the weight of his wife's helpless anger, and his own.

"So we never had a choice then."

Dudley gathered her back into his arms.

"We can choose not to be afraid."


	5. Diagon Alley

The day of the trip saw his children up and dressed two hours before the Potters were scheduled to arrive. The three of them poured over the list that had come with Daisy's letter. The last few weeks had seen a remarkable change in Theo and Brandon. They had gone to their cousins for a whole week, and came back with a stack each of leather-bound books. The two of them had poured over them obsessively and probably knew more about the wizarding world than either Dudley or Daisy. Dudley had snuck a peak and was relieved to find that there was no spellbooks amongst their collection.

They had both borrowed an open front robes from their cousins to wear over their muggle clothes. Daisy opted for a dress after Lily told her they would be fitted with robes while they were there. The Potters arrived by portkey in their living room at ten past ten. Theo and Brandon were disappointed to hear that they would be traveling by tube to get to Diagon Alley until Harry pointed out that meant they would know where the muggle entrance was.

An hour of hellish but ordinary transportation later they were following Harry down a busy street in the middle of London when he stopped suddenly.

"Do you see it?" He said pointing to a gap between a derelict Blockbusters and an Indian restaurant.

Dudley looked, and found his eyes sliding off the… space in-between them. As if it was the most unremarkable place in the world, not worth even glancing at… Ahhh.

"I can't look at it," he said eventually, trying to force his eyes to focus on the space. His family he saw, was having the same issue, all except Daisy, who was staring open mouthed right at it.

"You can't see it," she said incredulously. "It's a pub, a really old pub."

"Muggles can't." Ginny said as the crowd flowed around them. "It's enchanted to utterly escape their notice, even on camera. It's a good way of finding magical places, or so I'm told. Look for the place you can't keep your eyes on or makes you want to turn and walk the other way. It's probably trying to stay hidden from muggles."

"Stop trying to force your eyes to see it," Harry advised. "Let your gaze rest on the Indian, and sort of look at it out of the corner of your eye instead."

Dudley let his gaze drift over to the Indian restaurant, beside him he heard Theo gasp. Then he saw it, there _was_ a pub there, as long as he didn't focus on it he could see it. It looked practically medieval, completely contrasting the modern glass and steel street around it. It was a bit like a magic eye picture, you had to get your eyes focused just right and suddenly what was previously invisible jumped right out at you. His eyes watered as he struggled not to look directly at it. He looked over at his wife, and saw her eyes drop to their excited daughter, she gathered herself together, curiosity and resignation waging war in the lines of her face.

"Take our hands," Harry said. "It'll be hard for you guys too aim for the door, and the compulsion to leave will get stronger the closer you get unaccompanied. We'll get you some Mementos inside so you can get in by yourself." He felt a small hand take his, and looked down at his daughter. She was looking directly at the pub, a smile plastered all over her face. He smiled at her and let her lead him towards what was once more a gap between to shops.

He saw them disappear, one by one in front of him, and his mind did its best to convince him that this was the most unremarkable thing in the world; but he was beginning to recognise the influence of the enchantment, and he pushed experimentally against the notion. He was relieved to find that if he was focused, he could push back the influence in his mind and see the situation for what it was, though if his focus wandered, the compulsion came creeping back. Then Daisy's small hand tugged his impatiently and he was through a small door and into the dark pub.

It was like stepping several hundred years back in time, gaslights flickered, barely illuminating the ancient timber framed walls and heavily scarred oak furniture. Small, many-paned windows did little to help alleviate the gloom and the clientele did little to alleviate the alien feel of the place. Cloaked figures nursed pewter tankards and long pipes in the shadowy corners, the smoking ban had evidently not reached Wizarding England. They all turned to look as their party walked in, several nodded to Harry and several more, Dudley noted, slipped hurriedly out the back.

So strange was it all, that it took a few minutes for Dudley to notice how the ancient taproom was blatantly bigger on the inside than the narrow little pub had been outside, with crooked doorways afforded glimpses to additional rooms. The low ceiling opened up over the bar, and the wooden balconies and crisscrossing walkways glimpsed above betrayed several more stories than should be objectively possible. Dudley shuddered, wizard construction did not appear to concern itself with little things like load bearing walls or proper bracing. He tried not to think about how much of the place would stay standing should the magic fail.

"Hey Harry, Ginny," came a musical voice from behind the bar. A slender looking girl, her blue hair done up in braids stood there cleaning a leather tankard.

"Hey Isabella, where's your uncle?" Harry asked walking over.

"He had an appointment at St Mungos. I said I would look after the bar for the evening," she said setting it down. "Hey James."

"H… ehm hey Issy," said James, trying and failing to sound casual.

"And how are you? You've got one more year at Hogwarts haven't you?" Harry said innocently watching the progress his son's steadily rising blush with evident enjoyment.

"Yup, then I've got an enchantment apprenticeship lined up over in Prague. If I get an O in Transfiguration and Ancient Runes" She said flicking her blue braids over one shoulder, they rippled through green and purple and then back to blue as they moved. Dudley wondered if it was a spell.

"Do you know where Tom keeps the Muggle Memento's Isabella?" He asked her, "I need four."

The girl nodded and reached behind the bar to pull out a batted box that seemed to be filled with a random selection of coins from all over the world.

"Take your pick." She said, shaking the box at them.

Cautiously Dudley out his hand in the box and drew out an old-fashioned silver shilling. A faint tingling flew up his fingers and a slender chain uncoiled itself out of thin air, recoiling itself in his hand. He picked it up, and noticed the coin was now fused to it.

"Just remember these are for personal use only," Harry said seriously as they held their new pendants. "They're cursed, nothing awful, but if you try and bring your mates in here or give a coin to someone else, you're going to wake up somewhere embarrassing with very little memory of the night before. And afterwards you would get a visit from the Obliviators and trust me you don't want that." He looked pointedly at the boys, who nodded hurriedly.

"So what is this, like a muggle ID badge?" Dudley asked eyeing his wife, who hd put hers on without comment. Harry gave him a strange look.

"In a magical sense I suppose, you don't have to show them to anyone or anything. These tokens exempt you from the many layers of enchantment designed to keep muggles out. If any of you had tried to get through that door unaccompanied, you would have found it... very difficult, though it's not impossible. These will let you in through this entrance, though I'm told they have a tendency to weaken all muggle repelling charms a little. Kings Cross won't give you much trouble anyway but Hogwarts would require something more..." He trailed off, looking at their black faces. "It's like your super-secret decoder ring that lets you into the hidden clubhouse," he finished brightly. Behind him, Ginny sighed.

Dudley and his family put their new pendants on with a little trepidation. Dudley made a mental note to confiscate them from the boys at the end of this outing. There would be no unaccompanied trips into magical London if he could help it.

Harry turned back to the girl.

"Thank you kindly Isabella. Well we better be off, say hi to Tom from me, say goodbye James," he said sweeping off, an evil little grin on his face. James shot his dad a murderous look, then muttered something and fled towards the back door.

"Bye James," an amused voice floated after them as Harry led them into a back courtyard. James had a supremely sulky look on his face that was probably not helped by Al's quiet sniggering.

"Isn't she a bit young to be tending a bar?" He asked as Harry rooted around for his wand, Harry was supposed to be something like the wizard chief of police after all.

"Different laws in here." Harry shrugged. "Toms got all the hard liquor in enchanted bottles anyway, can't be drunk by anyone under seventeen. Which is the wizarding age of majority." He added. He held up his wand.

"Watch this," he advised them, "This is really cool." He tapped a particular brick on the cracked wall. It wiggled and folded away. He stepped backwards as a cascade of bricks followed it, all shunting backwards to form an arched doorway.

"Dudley, Dursleys, may I introduce you to, Diagon Alley, the centre of Wizarding London," said Harry with a grin and a grand gesture.

Beyond his outstretched arm was a crowded little street.

Dudley's first impression was that of a movie set brought to life. It just didn't look like it could be real. Old Tudor buildings overhung the winding cobblestone street and strange produce spilled out of every crooked shopfront. The contents of which was, above the hooting of owls and the chatter of the crowd, being loudly advertised and bartered for in languages that Dudley couldn't begin to identify. Cracked wooden shop signs and bright cloth banners crisscrossed the narrow space between the upper stories, their painted advertisements moving and changing and occasionally shouting to passers-by. It even smelt different, the smell of car fumes and pollution had been replaced by spice and incense and smoke.

People, and things that were probably not people, flitted from shop to shop, their bright robes often worn with eclectic versions of muggle fashions. They laughed and chattered as they shopped, carrying cauldrons and broomsticks and other strange items as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world, casually shrinking down their shopping or floating it along beside them as they walked. Dudley jumped as a man cracked into existence inside a heavy copper ring inlaid into the street to the left of them. He nodded to a woman in purple robes as she stepped into the circle, spun on her heel and snapped out of reality with an equally loud crack. Nobody else seemed to find this notable.

It really was like stepping into a whole different world. It did not seem possible that the ordinary London of glass and steel and technology that they had just left, could be just a few meters behind them. Dudley found himself greatly unnerved, it was one thing to accept magic and the magical world in the sedate safe environment of Harry's home, but to see it all so openly and blatantly on display.

It was all a bit overwhelming. They stood stunned in the archway, taking it all in. Dudley could see the same unease in Amanda's eyes as she held her daughters hand firmly in her own. Daisy and the boys were trying to look at everything at once, their eyes shining with open glee. Harry turned to them and clapped his hands together.

"Right, so partner up people. James you're with Theo, Al you look after Brandon, Daisy and Lily hold hands and stick with Ginny and Amanda. Anyone gets lost, go sit on the steps of the big marble bank at the end of the street we will come and find you." He leveled a stare at his children. "We are getting school supplies first. You can sneak off to Broomstix or Uncle George's shop afterwards. I want us to stick together." His boys looked disappointed, but Harry ignored them. "Right, to Gringotts!"

They trooped down the road, their heads swivelling from side to side, as they took in cauldron shops, quillmakers, apothecaries and what looked like a small dragon outside a dim menagerie; until they reached easily the grandest building on the street. Harry hesitated before their large golden doors.

"As much as I'd like to see your reaction to goblins, I think I will wait here," he said sitting down on the steps. "They don't like me all that much, you'll have an easier time with just Ginny there."

"Why don't they like you?" Dudley asked him. Al grinned.

"Because dad and Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron are the only people to ever successfully rob them. They broke into one of their deepest vaults and nicked its greatest treasure, then they stole a dragon and flew it straight through the front door."

Harry looked embarrassed. "In my defence the fate of the country was at stake. But the Goblins see it as a stain on their reputation and they really like to hold onto a grudge, they can become… unhelpful when I'm around. Even though I returned Gryffindor's sword and everything."

"You'll have to tell me about it some time," Dudley said as Ginny ushered them up the steps without him. Behind him, Dudley heard snatches of what was probably a much embellished account of that particular tale being passed between the kids.

Harry would have been disappointed. Dudley merely shifted uncomfortably when he saw the goblin bank tellers and tried not to stare as he exchanged his money for a small pile of gold, silver and copper coins. He and Amanda opted out of the ride down to the Potter vault. They missed out, according to their slightly dizzy kids, on a thrilling ride and a vault just full of gold. Dudley and Amanda assured them they would could live without either experience.

When they headed back down the steps they found Harry standing with Hermione and a tall redheaded man introduced as Ron. Their children greeted his and Harry's children familiarly. Evidently they were also regulars at the Potter house.

Dudley reached out to shake the man's hand, noting the faded scars that wound their way up his forearms, there was something...

"Didn't you once kidnap Harry in a flying car?" He blurted out, Ron looked surprised at being addressed by him.

"Didn't you almost fall out of the window trying to hold on to him?" He shot back. Dudley looked between Ron and Ginny, and made the obvious connection.

"You married into that family?" He said to Harry, it didn't quite come out as he had intended it to and he flushed and opened his mouth to apologize. Harry grinned.

"For my sins," he said dramatically, dodging a playful punch from his wife as he did so. Ron laughed as Dudley's kids rounded on him.

"What? When did you see a flying car?" Brandon demanded.

"Why did you kidnap Harry?" Theo asked Ron, Amanda also looked curious.

"Uh, another time." Dudley muttered, not really wanting to go into why rescuing Harry from his family that summer had probably been pretty necessary. Ron shot him a surprisingly understanding look and shoed the kids questions away.

Most of the rest of the day passed in a half surreal, half familiar blur. Dudley experienced that feeling familiar to any parent buying back-to-school supplies, where money seems to disappear down an endless sucking black hole. Yet they were buying quills instead of pens, robes instead of uniforms. They trooped from shop to shop, Harry and his friends casually shrinking down their shopping each time.

Brandon and Theo spent the afternoon shamelessly trying to monetise on their parent's residual guilt. Dudley said no more than he said yes, a fact that seemed to surprise his cousin at first. He let them get a few interesting but not obviously magical things each, and let them exchange their pocket money with some of his wizard coins with the warning that all purchases would be vetted. He caught Harry's look of bemused approval as they scampered off ahead towards Florish and Blotts.

"What?"

"Nothing, its just..."

"You thought I'd let them have whatever they wanted, just like when I was young?" he said a little sourly as they made their way towards the bookshop. Harry looked a little guilty.

"Well, I mean it was how you were raised..."

"You don't lock your kids in the cupboard, I try not to over-stuff mine with food or spoil them rotten, we all try not to repeat the mistakes of the past," he said, feeling a bit defensive.

There was a somewhat guilty pause, and James snickered.

"Dad used to lock us in the cupboard all the time when we were little. He would tell us we had to keep very quiet and hide from the big bad Vernon-monster stomping up and down the stairs. Then him and mum would go off and have some quiet time. Used to keep us occupied for hours, it was our favourite game for like, two years."

Dudley looked incredulously at Harry, who had gone red.

"In my defence our downstairs cupboard held a bouncy castle and a small theatre and the boys were really exhaustively annoying when they were young."

"The Vernon-monster?" Dudley said, trying desperately to keep a straight face.

"I-"

Harry looked helplessly at him as James grinned maliciously at his father, obviously enjoying his payback for the pub incident. Dudley held it together in front of his squirming cousin for a minute longer. Then he broke. He put his hands on his knees and howled with laughter, causing the rest of their party to look around in surprise. Harry looked chagrined for a moment, then his mouth twitched and, somewhat ruefully, he joined in.

It took Dudley a while to notice, so overwhelming was everything else; how people reacted to their group as they moved around the streets. At first he thought it was because their ordinary clothes identified them as muggle tourists in this strange world, thought they weren't the only ones he had seen. But it wasn't them, it was Harry, people turned to look at him, they stepped aside wherever he walked. Whispers followed them into every shop and occasionally, someone would come up and shake his hand, or mumble something and dart away. Harry, and the rest of his extended family seemed to take this in stride. He smiled amicably at anyone who approached him and ignored the rest.

He remembered the giant from years and years ago. ' _You don't know about your mum and dad? They're famous, you're famous.'_ Evidently Harry had being playing down just how well know he still was. He was hit once again with the realisation of just how little he knew the life of the cousin that he had grown up with. For the first time in a long time, he felt a flash of anger towards his mother, had she and his father just acted differently, then maybe neither of them would consider themselves an only child.

He felt a tug and looked down into the serious brown eyes of Lily.

"It's not usually this bad." She informed him as they stepped out of another shop. "It's just because the Hogwarts shoppers aren't used to seeing dad around."

"He's really that famous?" He asked, watching Harry accept a flower handed to him by a bent old witch, she raised a shaking hand to his face. Several of her fingers were missing.

"We did him in History of Magic last year, 'Harry Potter and the Rise and Fall of Lord Voldemort,'" said James as they followed the others down the street. "It's all about how dad and Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron and the Order won the war. They go do a talk every year on it to the fifth years, along with Lord Malfoy." He grinned "Easiest set of essays I ever did. Professor Rincewind gave me full marks cos of all the all the extra detail I knew."

"He doesn't really like talking about it." Lily said, still holding onto his arm, "But he says it's important that people remember it right. So they do it on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, every year. Then he and Lord Malfoy and Ron and Hermione all go get roaring drunk afterwards. Sometimes some of the others that were there join them like Aunt Luna or Professor Longbottom, but mostly it's just them." She frowned, " I don't think dad and Lord Malfoy like each other that much, but just for that one day, they remember together... dad says it's harder for him to do it, he's not one of the heroes." She paused for a moment head tilted to one side. "Uncle Ron says that's not excuse for being a twat."

When they reached Eeylops Owl Emporium Harry surprised the girls with twin tawny owls. He was quick to assure her startled parents that Daisy's could be kept at his house during the holidays.

"Some late birthday presents," he said magnanimously as he handed over their cages to the glowing girls. "Mind you look after them and actually write home occasionally."

Dudley opened his mouth, then sighed and let it go. Harry was clearly getting a kick out of being the cool magical uncle to his kids. If he was willing to look after the creature… Dudley looked at the gaggle of children surrounding the two cages, besides there was no way of taking it off her now.

Harry caught his eye and grinned unrepentantly at his resigned expression. He turned and handed Dudley a book of strangely shaped stamps with a pictures of owls on them.

"One of these on a letter or parcel will get it sent to London's Aviation Exchange, put Daisy's name, school and house on it, and it will get sent on by owl to Hogwarts, she can send her owl back to you."

"Thanks," said Dudley taking them and carefully tucking them away, quietly touched by the thoughtfulness of the gesture.

"Right, said Harry, "and finally, your wands."

Lily and Daisy were practically vibrating with excitement as they made their way towards an unremarkable little shop that they had already passed several times that day. Harry had insisted that they do this last.

"You lot can head off if you like," he said casually to the four older children. Theo and Brandon looked torn between curiosity and the exciting looking joke shop owned by the kids' uncle. "Go, this bit is more boring than you'd think, and it will likely take ages." They scuttled off down the road. Ron and Hermione veered off off as well, not needing any wands this year.

Uncle...Uncle... Dudley suddenly went pale.

"When you say uncle, you don't mean those awful twins that left me with a ten foot tongue?" he demanded.

Harry smiled a little sadly. "Yeah that was some of their early work, don't worry, I'll strip them of anything too dangerous or obviously magical before we leave," he said as they ducked inside the dusty store. There wasn't much room inside, and what room there was, was mostly taken up by rows upon rows of slender boxes, stacked floor to the ceiling on deep set shelves. It had the quiet, undisturbed air of an old library, Dudley instinctively lowered his voice.

"Harry hang on a min-"

"Back again Mr Potter?" Dudley jumped a little as the voice drifted out of the shadows, followed by an very old man in a floating armchair. After the day he'd had Dudley barely gave this a glance.

"Apologies for not getting up, it's more difficult to do these days," he said, his strange silver eyes settling on the two girls. "Is this yet another Potter I see before me, and another from the Evans line as well? My, my, witches seem to pop up like mushrooms in that family don't they. It seems like only yesterday Lily Evans was in here herself buying…" He trailed off his eyes focusing on the past.

"Mr Ollivander?" said Harry gently after a moment of silence. There was a noise from the back rooms and a silver eyed young man walked out from the shops workshop, a leather apron tied over his shirt and slacks. Ollivander seemed to return to the present.

"Have you met my great, great nephew Tibor?" He said, gesturing with a long thin hand at the blond youth. "I am trying to teach him the art of wandmaking… he is quite good, though he has some strange ideas."

The young man laughed. "I take it as a compliment uncle, after all that is what they said about you when you turned wandmaking on its head." He said with an accent that Dudley could not quite identify.

Ollivander smiled and patted his hand vaguely, then his eyes seemed to sharpen. "The wand chooses the wizard you know." He said to the eager girls. "Always it must be so, if you wish for the best results. Your father and brothers were notoriously difficult to match Miss Potter, this may take a while."

It did, the pile of boxes grew and grew as Lily waved around what looked to Dudley like identical pieces of wood in the air. Most of the time she had hardly raised them before they were snatched from her hand. Tibor did most of the legwork, cheerfully calling out suggestions and summoning boxes from the back rooms. Nobody seemed too worried about the steadily growing pile of discarded wands. He wasn't even looking when she finally found it. There was a gasp, and what he could only describe as warm blue rustling sound filled the shop. Glints of light danced in the air as Lily brought down the slender stick, a glowing smile lighting up her face.

Instantly Dudley realised why Harry had sent the boys away. This was a special moment, the awakening of a gift that despite his and Hermione's little speech, they could never truly share. She whirled the wand joyfully around above her head, sparks cascading around her. He could feel the warm touch of the magic running over his skin, on, but not under it. So close, yet irrevocably out of reach, and for a moment he yearned for it with all his soul and hated that little girl for having what he never could. He shivered and his eyes met those of his shaken wife. Yes it was a very good idea to send the boys away.

"Ahh Willow, 13 inches with a Dragon Heartstring core, very similar to your grandmother's wand," said Ollivander clapping his hands. Harry smiled and handed him a stack of gold coins as Lily reverently tucked her new wand back into its case. "And now on to you Miss Dursley, I wonder what your match will be?"

Tibor waved his own wand, and Lily's pile of discarded wands leapt back into their boxes and returned to the shelves.

And so the process started again, a new pile of wands growing ever bigger. But unlike her cousin's airy unconcern, Dudley could see the fear growing on his daughters face as each wand was discarded. He watched intently for any sign of magic. Willing a wand, any wand to wipe that growing look of despair off of his little girls face. Ginny put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You know Ollivander had to practically empty the shop to find Harry's wand," she said as Tibor went looking for some of their more unusual combinations. "Don't worry, your wand is in here somewhere." His daughter nodded, but she looked like she was about to cry. Dudley walked over and pulled her in for a swift hug.

"Don't you worry chickpea. We will find it," he said reassuringly, shooting Harry a hard questioning look over her head. Harry nodded his head empathically as Tibor came back carrying a small stack of boxes.

"We don't usually bother with these, they so rarely choose a partner." He said cheerfully setting them down.

The pile began to grow again, and Dudley realised that Tibor was no longer fetching new wands from the back of the shop. He looked over at his daughter who was staring at the dwindling stack of unopened boxes, tears rolling down her face. He took a step forward but his wife beat him too it, she knelt down before their daughter and took the useless wand from her limp hand.

"Look at me sweetie," she said, cupping Daisy's tear streaked cheek. "If your wand is not here, we will find it someplace else, this is only one shop."

"But what if, if I can't go?" Daisy choked out, a number of emotions passed over his wife's face at that moment, too fast for anyone but him to see. She sighted and hugged their little girl.

"It's where you are meant to be my love, I promise you, you can go."

"Give her the Applewood one, phoenix feather, twelve inches." Said Ollivander from behind them, he turned his chair towards her. "It's been sitting on my shelf for almost thirty years now, maybe it's been waiting for you."

Tibor opened a scuffed leather box offered it to Daisy. As soon as her fingers touched it, it was obvious that this was her wand. The room filled with the tinkling of bells and the warm smell of autumn. She lifted it out of the box, and a trail of red and gold sparks shadowed her movements. She laughed in relief and spun in a circle, the sparks trailing after her. Then she launched herself at her father burying herself in his arms.

"I'm a witch Daddy." she said her voice overflowing with joy. "I really am a witch."

"Of course you are. I never doubted it silly." Dudley said smiling down at her. He looked up and caught the strange little grin playing across Harry's face.

"What?"

"Oh nothing, just thinking its' funny how life turns out," he said innocently looking at the pair of them.


	6. The Train Station

_If you are confused as to why this has popped up as updated, yet seems to finish in the same place. The new chapter is in fact Chapter 4._

"We are going to miss it."

"Daisy we are half an hour early," said Dudley as his wife struggled to push his daughter's unwieldy trolley across the floor of Kings Cross Station. The owl, now christened Powell by popular vote, hooted nervously from its unsteady perch atop the large trunk. Dudley would have helped, but his hands were full with his mother's wheelchair. She sat, tight-lipped and doll-like amongst a multitude of blankets. She hadn't spoken to him for weeks after he had told her. She wouldn't look at him, even now.

Yet here she was. All it had taken was Daisy asking. She had taken her grandmother's hand after the inevitable shouting match that had occurred at the news of her going to Hogwarts. _Please, Grandma, please don't be angry, please come see me off._ Dudley knew that she didn't understand what she was asking of her grandmother in that moment. But to his astonishment Petunia had stared at her for a long time, then wrapped her in a bony hug; and here she was, voluntarily stepping foot into the wizarding world. He honestly hadn't thought she had it in her.

They made their way through the packed station. Fellow parents were easily spotted pushing similar trunk-cage combos. The boys ran on ahead, racing to find the spot where platforms nine and ten met.

They watched as one family slid nonchalantly towards a remarkably unremarkable column. They needn't have bothered, nobody so much as glanced their way as three carts in a row, complete with screeching owls, disappeared though a supposedly solid wall. Dudley had to will himself to watch what they did. His mind was telling him that there were so many other things he needed to do than stare at some silly wall… He shook his head, refocusing and saw Brandon and Theo do the same thing. He felt the shilling grow warm against his skin, and the pressure to look away eased somewhat.

Theo walked determinedly up to wall and pushed. At first it seemed as if the wall would stay solid, then it yielded and his arm disappeared up to the elbow. With a cocky grin, he pushed onward and disappeared. Petunia muttered something as Brandon quickly followed him and Amanda and Daisy shoved the trolley through.

Not giving Petunia time to object, he passed through the brickwork at a fast jog. They slowed to a halt just beyond the gate. Petunia gripped the arms of her wheelchair and stared, tight lipped at the multitude of robed parents and their children whirling in and out of the fog made from the bright red steam train. It had not changed in the quarter of a century since the one and only time Dudley had stood, terrified waiting for his weirdo cousin to get off of the train. He suddenly wondered if Petunia had ever seen her little sister off on the same train, if it seemed as unchanging to her as it did to him.

He stared down at her pinched face, her eyes focused on the distant past, and was suddenly overcome with sympathy for her. Coming here obviously caused her a great deal of pain and he was grateful that, however grudgingly, she had managed this show of support for her granddaughter's sake.

It was then that Harry and his family stepped out of the steam. Dudley saw him do a literal double take when he saw Petunia.

"Well well." He heard him mummer as they approached. "Hell really has frozen over."

"Hello Aunt Petunia."

Petunia placed her hands primly in her lap and refused to look at him as he stepped forward to greet them all. Harry's kids were all pushing identical trunk and owl sets before them. The boys peered curiously at their cousin's grandmother but were quickly distracted by their cousin's greetings.

Lily was more bold, she stared unabashedly at her great aunt, her red little head tilted in that queer way of hers. Dudley knew when his mother's eyes landed on the child, he heard her breath hitch for a moment, and then continue. To Dudley's surprise and possibly Petunia's as well she addressed Harry's daughter.

"And what is your name?" She asked, her voice almost lost amount the sea of noise.

"Lily Luna Potter," the little girl replied promptly. Petunia nodded almost to herself, Dudley glanced up and saw that Harry was also watching the quiet little scene, his eyes unreadable. Daisy was glancing between the two of them, a worried expression on her face. Lilly reached over and firmly grasped her hand. "We are best friends you know," she said, a touch of defiance entering her voice. Clearly, Daisy had confided in her cousin her fears about her grandmother's reaction.

Petunia regarded them both, standing there in their Hogwarts robes for a long moment. One thin and blond, proper and prim; the other small and redheaded, mischievous and fey. The almost-echo of a different day long ago.

Dudley held his breath as she unfolded a frail arm and grasped her grandniece gently under the chin. She examined Lily's pointed little face and sorrel brown eyes, searching perhaps for the echo of her namesake.

"Well Lily Potter," she said at last, "I wish you the best at your new school, I hope you have many happy years ahead of you." To those who did not know her well, her voice was the picture of polite gentility, yet Harry glanced sharply at her, a complex expression passing over his features. Dudley stared at his mothers very nearly unwavering face and wondered how long such words had echoed around the quiet chambers of her heart and if it helped to speak time aloud in memory of the little girl who could never hear them.

This little girl took these words with a solemnity Dudley wished he could thank her for. She took her great aunt's hand for a moment, and then smiled Harry's smile at her. Only Dudley would be close enough to hear Petunia's breath stopping for a long moment, and he thought perhaps that it was another thing inherited from her grandmother.

"Thanks Aunt Petunia," she said, and ran off to talk to her friends, her red flag of hair streaming behind her. His mother watched her go, her eyes swimming in carefully controlled emotion.

Dudley met Harry's eyes for a moment, and then the two silent witnesses turned away.

His boys really were doing well he noted with pride as they chatted animatedly to their departing family and friends. He could see the longing flicker across their faces as they gazed at the train and all the excited children, but they seemed to be resolved to send their sister off in good cheer. They were gathered in a huddle, all promising to write to each other and to visit in the holidays.

They were doing better than he was to be honest. The whispers were following Harry once again, and Dudley noticed that the pointing seemed to now include his family as well. Not all of those faces looked friendly, he wondered how much was known about how Harry had been treated growing up. He gripped the handles of his mother's wheelchair and tried to tell himself that this was the best thing for Daisy. Denying her this would be rejecting an essential part of her. He'd known this all along. It had been the only thing that had made him pick up the phone instead of picking up his family and running as far away as he could manage. He couldn't have bared to ask her to shut away all the joy that was so evident at each touch of magic. To have told her that that part of her was wrong and freakish and should be suppressed. He loved her too much.

But here, on the precipice of her leap into the unknown he fought the urge to snatch her up into his arms and never let her go. She was so young, and he was sending her to a place where he couldn't protect her, wouldn't even understand and could never really be part of. She would be all alone, away from her family…

Dudley focused on her little blond head, almost lost amongst the sea of red and black and brown that surrounded her. She wasn't alone, he realised looking at the knot of nattering youngsters. She was surrounded by family. The Potter children and their friends were obviously used to the stares and the whispers, and they encircled their two youngest members protectively, shielding them with laughter and chatter from the curiosity of the crowd. She would go there with a dozen friends and family to look out for her, to help her when she struggled or got lost or down…

He had picked up the phone and Harry, without a second thought, had welcomed them into his world. He had owed his poor excuse for a family nothing but resentment for the childhood he had endured. But instead of bitterness, he had taken his little niece and her frightened father and offered them family, and friendship and guidance….

He turned to Harry, who was watching the children with a fond smile. He grasped his arm.

"Thank you." It was suddenly very important that he said it. "For…for everything. Thank you."

Harry looked startled for a moment.

"Ahh D-man, that's what family is for," he said with a smile and a clap on the back, but his eyes looked misty as he turned away.

The children were saying their goodbyes now, with many hugs and kisses to go around. Daisy came back to them, chatting earnestly with her brothers as she did so, Dudley caught snatchers of their whispered conversation.

"I really don't think you should try brewing potions in the loo, I don't think it wo-"

He decided to deal with that later. His little girl stood before them, a brother at each elbow. She really didn't look old enough he thought as Amanda knelt down to hug her, a stream of last minute instructions pouring out in a choked voice. Petunia, who had been cocooned quietly in her blankets suddenly leant forward and enfolded her in a tight hug.

"You be careful there sweetie." She said fiercely, her eyes bright. "There are dangers as well as wonders at that school, you must make sure you look after yourself." Daisy nodded seriously and leant forward to give her grandmother a kiss.

"Thank you for coming grandma." She said, and Dudley wondered if perhaps she was a lot more shewed than he had thought.

He knelt down and his daughter flew into his arms.

"Goodbye daddy," she said seriously, peppering his wet face with kisses. "I'll write every week and definitely come home for the holidays."

"You'd better," he said hoarsely. "Be safe my little chickpea. If anyone gives you trouble, tell your cousins OK, and if anything-"

"I'll be fine dad," she said laughing at him. "I've got loads of friends and I've even met some of the teachers already, don't worry so much."

"I can't help it chickpea, that's what dads are for," he said smiling a little wanly.

Finally after all the hugs and kisses were done, it was time for them to board. As he watched Lily took Daisy's hand, the Potter children and their friends formed almost of phalanx around them as they headed towards the train.

All of a sudden, Petunias hand shot out and gripped Harry's arm, he looked down at her in surprise.

"Promise she will be safe, she said staring almost desperately into his face. "Promise me that no harm will come to her in that place."

A myriad of expression passed over Harry's face in that moment, but the one that it settled on was sympathy. He knelt down beside his birdlike aunt's wheelchair, ignoring the fresh outbreak of whispering that it caused and pointed towards Daisy's honour guard as they entered the train.

"She won't ever be alone Aunt." He said gently, "she has her family right there with her."

Harry stood, smiling and waving at their daughters, both handing out of one window as the train whistle blew. He placed a hand on her thin shoulder.

"You know I can't promise perfect safety," he said as the train pulled away in a cloud of steam. "But trust me, they will be some of the happiest years of her life."


End file.
